Zero Days VR is a virtual reality documentary telling the story of Stuxnet - the first cyber weapon known to cause physical destruction. Stuxnet is a self-replicating computer virus created by the US and Israel to sabotage an underground Iranian nuclear facility. Zero Days VR illustrates the jour-ney of Stuxnet, from the perspective of the virus itself. As a viewer you are guided through a series of immersive virtual worlds - from the NSA headquarters where you hear the testimony of an in-formant, into the underground nuclear facility infected by the virus. You witness the counterattack from Iran’s newly minted cyber army and finally travel into the heart of the virus itself as it calcu-lates its attack on the facility. In the final scene, the viewer finds themself face to face with the informant for a final reveal - seeing themselves represented as a live 3D hologram immersed in the virtual space.
Created using a real time game engine and optimized for ‘six-degrees of freedom’ positional track-ing, Zero Days VR pushes forward the cinematic medium of virtual reality. The experience com-bines real-time generative visualizations alongside live-action volumetric video filmed with our own 3D filmmaking system, DepthKit. This hybrid format allows for interactivity while staying true to the project’s purpose as a documentary conveying true events.

Based on the Participant Media documentary Zero Days directed by Alex Gibney, Zero Days VR is an original adaptation of the feature film. Our adaptation takes an entirely different ap-proach to the Stuxnet story. Our immersive virtual spaces, original illustrated graphics of the virus’ processes, and the juxtaposition of news-breaking reveals from the informant with public news archives makes the experience native to virtual reality. Zero Days VR places audiences inside the invisible world of computer viruses and allows them to experience and understand the high stakes of cyber warfare.
Zero Days runs on the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality display. Viewers are captured using an Intel Re-alSense R200 camera during the experience and implicated in the story during the final scene in a surprising reveal.

Biography:

Scatter

Scatter (US) is an immersive media studio pioneering an exciting new genre of immersive media called volumetric filmmaking. We combine the interactivity of game engine virtual reality with the craft and sensibility of filmmaking. Our virtual reality projects feature real people and their stories, three-dimensionally captured inside of interactive virtual reality experiences. Made possible with DepthKit, volumetric filmmaking allows us to capture real people and real stories and place them inside interactive virtual reality experiences.

Yasmin Elayat

Yasmin Elayat (US) is a new media artist, experience designer, and creative technologist. Her work pushes the boundaries of immersive and collaborative storytelling experiences ranging from new media documentary to immersive environments and site-specific installations. Yasmin is the co-creator of 18DaysInEgypta participatory interactive documentary project about the Egyptian Revolution supported by TFI, Sundance, and the Ford Foundation.

Elie Zananiri

Elie Zananiri (US) is a creative developer specialized in large-scale installations, mobile applications, and user interfaces. His work experiments with breaking social boundaries in public spaces, through immersive experiences and generative compositions. Elie is a regular contributor to open-source software projects, including the Processing and openFrameworks creative coding toolkits.

Mei-Ling Wong

Mei-Ling Wong (US) is a multi-disciplinary producer. Her career in producing commercials and im-mersive installations enables her to combine traditional production disciplines across a wide range of mediums including film, visual effects, motion graphics, live performance, experiential installa-tions, and documentary narratives told through the lens of virtual reality.

Alexander Porter

Alexander Porter (US) is a director of photography. His career as an artist, photographer, and doc-umentarian enable him to combine photographic traditions and narratives with new imaging tech-niques; exploring the documentary & aesthetic potential of reality capture techniques.

James George

James George (US) addresses the emotional response to science fiction technologies as they be-come reality. Co-creator of the DepthKit, a volumetric filmmaking system, James has helped to equip the next generation of filmmakers with a new cinematic vernacular. He has applied this for-mat towards feature films, interactive installations, and software products advancing the art of the moving image. Μost notably, James is the co-director of CLOUDS an interactive documentary profil-ing the communities of artist who work with code.